# Synthekine

Source: https://onco.cc/companies/synthekine/  
OnCo record `synthekine` (Company). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

A US company that re-engineers cytokines, the immune system's chemical messengers, so they act on helpful immune cells and spare the ones that cause side effects. Its lead drug is in a Phase 2 trial for a type of lung cancer.

## Summary

Synthekine engineers cytokine partial agonists and surrogate cytokine agonists. Its lead candidate, STK-012, is an alpha/beta-biased IL-2 partial agonist designed to stimulate antigen-activated T cells, which express the high-affinity IL-2 receptor (including IL-2R-alpha, CD25), while avoiding the NK-cell and naive T-cell activation the company links to capillary leak syndrome. STK-012 is in a randomised Phase 2 study with pembrolizumab and chemotherapy in first-line PD-L1-negative non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (SYNERGY-101, NCT05098132, with Merck Sharp & Dohme as collaborator). An IL-12 partial agonist for solid tumours is at the IND-enabling stage. Earlier cell therapy programmes using orthogonal IL-2 (SYNCAR-001 with an orthogonal IL-2 in CD19-positive cancers, and SYNCAR-002, a GPC3 CAR-T for hepatocellular carcinoma) are no longer in active development and are offered for partnering. The company was founded by K. Christopher Garcia of Stanford University.

## Fields

- Kind: Company
- Last checked: 2026-11-04
- Also known as: Synthekine, Inc.
- HQ: Menlo Park, CA
- Type: biotech
- Website: https://www.synthekine.com/

## Notes

- Founding year not stated on the pages read.
- NCT05665062 (SYNCAR-001 with orthogonal IL-2 in B-cell cancers, active, not recruiting) was confirmed through the ClinicalTrials.gov v2 API; it is not a trial record in OnCo and the programme is now a legacy programme.

## Sources

- Official website: https://www.synthekine.com/
- Pipeline page: https://www.synthekine.com/our-pipeline/
- About us: https://www.synthekine.com/about-us/
- ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05098132 (SYNERGY-101): https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05098132
- RA Capital portfolio entry: https://www.racap.com/portfolio/synthekine

## Connected records

- cancers: [Non-small-cell lung cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/nsclc/)
- fronts: [Immunotherapy](https://onco.cc/fronts/immunotherapy/)
- technologies: [Cytokines & engineered cytokines](https://onco.cc/technologies/cytokine-therapy/)
- targets: [CD25 (IL-2 receptor alpha)](https://onco.cc/targets/cd25/), [IL2RB](https://onco.cc/targets/il2rb/)
- drugs: [STK-012](https://onco.cc/drugs/stk-012/)
- trials: [Study of STK-012 Alone and With Other Treatments in Patients With Advanced Lung Cancer and Other Cancers](https://onco.cc/trials/nct05098132/)
- companies: [RA Capital Management](https://onco.cc/companies/ra-capital/)

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